Google, of Mountain View, Calif., set up a company in Shanghai’s pioneer free-trade zone last year, according to online filings reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Companies such as Amazon and Apple use Shanghai’s free-trade zone to run some of their value-added services in China, due to the area’s looser rules on foreign capital and greater freedom in terms of industries that foreign businesses can participate in.

The free-trade zone’s rules make it easier for foreign companies to run e-commerce operations, for example. But they have little benefit when it comes to activities such as Internet search and e-mail, which are dependent on the location of the server and the storage of data matter, according to people familiar with the matter.

An online company registration database shows the company, Peng Ji Information Technology (Shanghai) Ltd., was registered on Dec. 25, 2014. Google Ireland Holdings — an Irish-based subsidiary of Google — is listed as its only shareholder.

The Shanghai-based company’s registered capital is 5 million yuan ($781,250). Google Ireland Holdings paid off the total amount in April 2015, according to the online database.

A person named William Anthony Farris is registered as Peng Ji Information Technology’s legal representative and chairman of the board. Two others, Matthew Scott Sucherman and Fiona Mary Bones, are listed as the board members.

Google abruptly pulled most of its operations out of mainland China in 2010 following a disagreement with the Chinese government over the censorship of Internet search results. The company has recently been in talks with Chinese handset makers and government officials about potentially launching a new Android app store there, according to people familiar with matter.

It isn’t clear whether Google Inc. could use the Shanghai-based entity to eventually bring its major business back to China — or whether it would even seek to do so, given that the censorship dispute still looms large.

“Value-added internet services, such as Web search or e-mail service, require approval (from Chinese authorities), so it is hard to say whether Google obtained the permit in order to run those services, according to the description of its business operation scale,” said Wang Yanhui, secretary general of Mobile China Alliance, a telecommunication industry consortium.